Maldonado's Where?!

Anthony Pignataro:

Twitter certainly makes for an odd news feed. I never know what I’m going to find in the 141 feeds @CalWatchdog follows, and today was no different:

“As @aliciatrost said, Steinberg is the acting Guv today. @abelmaldonado is in Miami shooting a documentary of his life, Maldo’s office says,” tweeted Sacramento Bee reporter Kevin Yamamura at about 2 p.m.

You read that right.

Maldonado caught a red-eye flight to Miami last night, his spokesperson Amanda Fulkerson told me. He and his father are there. “He was able to schedule it so he could spend minimal time out of state,” she said. “Telemundo is making a documentary about the California Dream, the American Dream. Now your son is lieutenant governor — it’s a cool story.”

Fulkerson said that Maldonado and his dad filmed from 9 a.m. to noon Miami time, and he’ll be back in California in a few hours. (click here to read a Sacramento Bee blog post on this as well).

Keep in mind that Maldonado is lieutenant governor — pretty much the most useless job in the state. He’s also currently running for lieutenant governor against San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (who leads by about four points in a recent poll).

And since Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is still in Europe on the latest leg of his lame-duck tour of the world, Maldonado is Acting Governor — at least while he stays in the state. Now there are few better campaign opportunities for a man trailing in the polls than by taking advantage of his boss’ absence by becoming Acting Governor. Indeed, Maldonado was down in Santa Barbara yesterday playing Acting Governor by signing some new laws dealing with coastal protection.

But I’ve got to hand it to Maldonado. In the middle of a tough campaign — to say nothing of a constitutional succession situation — Maldonado has found something more important than petty politics or even government responsibilites. When Telemundo called him up and said they were filming a movie about his life and asked him to drop everything and fly all the way to Miami, Florida, he said yes.

If I wore a hat, Mr. Maldonado, I would tip it to you now.

Oh, by the way: Maldonado’s little jaunt to Florida means Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg is now Acting Governor.

Carry on.

OCT. 13, 2010